Dual Panel1As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don’t be a fool who doesn’t realize that mindless offerings to God are evil.
2And don’t make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven, and you are only here on earth. So let your words be few.
3Just as being too busy gives you nightmares, being a fool makes you a blabbermouth.
4So when you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him.
5It is better to say nothing than to promise something that you don’t follow through on.
6In such cases, your mouth is making you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.
7Dreaming all the time instead of working is foolishness. And there is ruin in a flood of empty words. Fear God instead.
8If you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and justice being miscarried throughout the land, don’t be surprised! For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice only get lost in red tape and bureaucracy.
9Even the king milks the land for his own profit!
10Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness!
11The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what is the advantage of wealth––except perhaps to watch it run through your fingers!
12People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich are always worrying and seldom get a good night’s sleep.
13There is another serious problem I have seen in the world. Riches are sometimes hoarded to the harm of the saver,
14or they are put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one’s children.
15People who live only for wealth come to the end of their lives as naked and empty–handed as on the day they were born.
16And this, too, is a very serious problem. As people come into this world, so they depart. All their hard work is for nothing. They have been working for the wind, and everything will be swept away.
17Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud––frustrated, discouraged, and angry.
18Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, and enjoy their work––whatever they do under the sun––for however long God lets them live.
19And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life––that is indeed a gift from God.
20People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy.